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Made In Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darkness is a survival game that is mission driven, and the player is given plenty of freedom at the outset of the main campaign to explore the game’s main setting, the Abyss, and in most cases, the player can explore the Abyss autonomously.

This chapter is intended to present the player with some basic principles that would make their expeditions into the Abyss easier. These are some general pointers that increase the likelihood of a successful expedition, that being one in which your potato kid lives.

First, don’t go picking fights that you don’t have to. In most action adventure games, you can reasonably expect to beat most bad guys that you encounter. In Made In Abyss, you’re usually better off avoiding any primeval creatures that you don’t need to fight. If fighting it doesn’t count towards a mission, and its potential drops aren’t needed, you’re usually better off conserving health and energy. Besides, some of the primeval creatures that you encounter are far beyond what the typical player’s abilities would be at the point that they encounter them. There can be exceptions for hunting for food, but you’d generally avoid something that can easily overpower you as far as that goes.

Think about it: if you were to spend a few days in the woods, would you think it a good idea to take a hatchet and attempt to fight some wild bears? The more sensible thing would be to avoid the bears. This game is kind of like that, except you do get strong enough to fight the stronger primeval creatures at some point.

For each whistle rank, there’s usually one or two armor sets that I can recommend. One might be a light armor set that doesn’t offer much protection, and the other might be heavier but offers much better protection. Which one you bring will depend on the kind of expedition that you plan for. One is where you plan on bringing back lots of relics, in which case you want to bring the light armor set and go somewhat easy on supplies, and the other expedition is where you expect to do some fighting, and you’re probably better off bringing plenty of food and healing supplies, too. Whatever set of armor you’re not wearing, you’re generally better off keeping in the chest at the orphanage, or it’s likely to just weigh you down. Also, some armor sets can be purchased from the Caravan Fleet rather than the typical Supply Shop, so it’s not a bad idea to check on each of the shops as you rank up. Considering that buying and upgrading two armor sets per rank can get resource-intensive, you’re better off just going with the armor set that goes best with your style.

When you return to the surface, you completely heal, and your weapon durability completely refills. Take advantage of this by keeping a few different weapons, keeping an eye on their durability, and switching to something else when one weapon is on the verge of breaking. This is a very cost-efficient approach when weapons and upgraded weapons get quite expensive or resource-intensive.

Now, for the items that I recommend bringing on most expeditions. There is some variation based on your objectives, but these are the basics. As mentioned above, it’s usually to your benefit to bring a few different weapons with you, such as different varieties of pickax, bow, or machete. You usually want to go with one of each, except for maybe a stack of the cheapest kind, which you wouldn’t mind breaking and moving on to another in the stack. The exception would be a more combat-centered expedition, where it might be a better idea to bring more of the heavier, harder-hitting weapons.

Speaking of, the weapons I recommend most are pickax and bow. You can go with machete instead of pickax, if you prefer, as they are pretty similar in battle. There is a gun, but it’s inaccurate unless you’re close to your target, and it’s usually not worth using until late-game. You can change your mind as to what weapon you specialize in, but you’ll probably want to increase your level so you have more points to spend on skills.

If you’re bringing a projectile weapon, be sure to bring ammunition, or it won’t do much for you. You can craft your ammunition, but it’s generally easier to just buy them. If you bring a bow, I recommend Blue Poison Arrows when available, as some large primeval creatures can be poisoned, which makes for some cheese tactics. If you bring a gun, Explosive Bullets are great for damage output, but are available later in the game.

Bring salt with you. And plenty of it. It’s light (only 5g per count), and is an ingredient in many simple recipes. If you’re in a tough spot and low on food, you’ll often be able to save your expedition if you can kill some easy game and prepare it with salt. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to make a dish unless you already learned the recipe.

And while we’re talking ingredients, Bird Egg is an ingredient for Boiled Egg or Crumbled Boiled Egg. Of the two, Crumbled Boiled Egg is much better. Carry plenty of these on you, they’re great for their weight, and the ingredients are common. Not only do they restore your health, they also fill your tummy up, making expeditions last longer.

In addition, you’ll want a little food that’ll give you a boost in energy (the blue food icon). This will come in handy in circumstances in which you’re stuck on a wall and on the verge of running out of energy. Cooked Insect is perhaps the easiest one to access, but you might get other food items as a reward for completing quests before you learn the recipe to make them yourself.

There are a few medicinal items that can come in handy in a bad spot, so it’s not a bad idea to bring at least one or two each of Red Antidote, Blue Antidote, Paralysis Antidote, and Bandage. You might not use them very often, but they’re light. Generally, it’s better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Ropes, and to a lesser extent, some Pitons. From what I can determine, there’s no functional difference between Self-Made Ropes and the ones that you can buy at the store, so there’s no huge reason to turn your nose up at the ones that you make yourself. But if money isn’t an issue, you’re generally better off with store-bought, because they’re a bit lighter. You won’t need the pitons as often, but it’s not a bad idea to have at least a couple in your kit. On some runs, such as much of the second and fourth layers, you could use a lot of rope.

At least one fishing rod, and a little of each bait that’s available. Considering that it’s easy to find bait near fishing spots, you probably don’t need to go overboard buying bait, unless you plan on doing something like setting an expedition aside to focus down on fishing. In any case, the bait is light weight. Just mind the durability of your fishing rod; you might need more than one if you plan on fishing heavily.

If you want, you can get some charms to help reduce the likelihood of poisoning or injury, which you can buy from the Caravan Fleet. These items can be equipped to sets of armor that are slotted for them. Later in the game, you’ll find other items that you can equip instead, such as replica White Whistles or certain relics. To unequip these, go to the Status screen, and under Clothing, highlight the charm, then press the button indicated for Remove on the screen.

Monocular, and later, Telescope. These can also be purchased from the Caravan Fleet. If you plan on filling out notebook entries, you should bring one of these with you. But if you don’t care, then it’s not necessary.

Usually at least one Mail Balloon. If things go sideways, you’ll be relying on Auto-Saves, or you can just resume from the journal at the Orphanage. Mail Balloons allow you to save during an expedition, with some limitations (you’re not in immediate danger, and there’s open air in your general vicinity). You can craft these from broken mail balloons that you find, so it might not be completely necessary to buy these.

When cave raiding, it’s the red, sparkling deposits that you usually want, since they’re more likely to have valuable relics. You can hear these “sparkle” when close by, which is tethered to Environmental Volume in the options. Some players turn the BGM volume off or down to make it easier to hear this.

In Binary Star, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Here are a few more pointers that can help your potato kid survive their expeditions, or otherwise thrive:

Frequently go to the guild headquarters and accept every quest that’s there. You have no reason not to. Actions such as gathering as conditions for competing quests only count after you’ve accepted those quests. You can gain plenty of EXP and money from quests, so go accept those quests.

Most relics that you find don’t do anything for you in their current state, but can net you piles of EXP and money for turning them in to Relic Appraisal. It’s not a bad idea to trunk five to ten of each relic, which can come in handy when you get the option to craft relic armor pieces and weapons, and some quests require that you turn in certain relics. Yeah, they threaten to string up those who keep relics for themselves, but from what I can tell, they don’t actually follow through on this threat in Binary Star, so go ahead and stash some relics. Each layer has a different set of relics to uncover, so by the end of the game, you’ll have quite an inventory.

Between expeditions, Kiyui might ask for a shiny stone. Only the blue and yellow stones will make him happy. If you give him what he wants, he’ll give you a piece of material at random from a small pool (such as Limber Scales and Shellfish Shell). It’s not a bad idea to stock up on these stones so you can keep returning to him for more materials, if you want such materials. What he gives is random, and it can be otherwise hard to find Limber Scales in the early game, when you might want them to upgrade armor, so it’s not a bad idea to save-scum for the material that you’re after.

As you level up, you’ll get more points to spend on the Skills tab. Under Battle, focus mainly on Dodge and whatever weapons you plan on focusing on, ignoring the ones that you’re not bothering with. If you spend points on Gun, but don’t use any guns, those points won’t be doing anything for you.

As for the Cave Raid tab, these are pretty much all non-negotiable. You want them all. Backpack is best, as it allows you to carry more gear, Climb is great because it means you get better at climbing, which is a huge part of the game. You want all the Gather options, as soon as they’re available. These abilities are not translated well, but what there is to know is that most of them double the amount you pickup, first of what you gather, one makes it harder for fish to get away (not a big deal), then pickups from fauna and fish, and finally things that you mine, such as relics. To double pick-ups is a real game-changer, so go for these as soon as they’re available. But when it comes down to it, each of the Cave Raid abilities are great.

Then there’s Craft. For some reason, Box is included among the Craft skills. If you’re running out of trunk space, then go with Box. The ability to cook meals is great, but a lot of the recipes are kind of redundant. You’ll generally be fine going up to Smoked Dishes in the Meal section. But Items are high priority if you’re wanting to make Relic Armor sets. Bow and Bullet isn’t a big deal, because you can just buy Ammo.

You might be okay not upgrading armor for much of the game. In many cases, such as the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Layers, crafting armor beyond what you can buy at the store may be overpreparing for bosses that aren’t all that hard, and upgraded armor usually becomes obsolete when you rank up.

To Part 3: Red Whistle